Talk about a custom job! I have never seen anything like it. I would love to see those cut bass drums from the back. Are they even playable or just for show? Also, whats the fire extiguisher for? Does he have insane amounts of pyro behind and next to his kit that it needs to be that close...lol?

As for the fire extinguishers...I remember seeing AVH set the whole kit on fire on the 1980 Invasion tour, and a couple times after that too.
I don't know if he does that still, or just the gong/gong stand.

I can't believe I've actually seen some people on here say that Alex is basically mediocre or just "ok". Alex has one of those sounds (along with Eddie) that you know it's a Van Halen song right away. They could play a country song and you'd say hey that sounds like Van Halen??? To me that's greatness. If you really listen to Alex play, I think you'd find a lot of little things going on...he's got some strange time keeping also in certain songs. I'm not saying he's the god of all drummers..but if you can have a sound where people go "hey that's gotta be (so and so) than that's what it's all about, that makes you unique.

As for the fire extinguishers...I remember seeing AVH set the whole kit on fire on the 1980 Invasion tour, and a couple times after that too.
I don't know if he does that still, or just the gong/gong stand.

yes he did in 1980....that tour was killer....i think he went to just the gong and stand after, because he set his arm on fire on that tour....i remember reading that in " drums and drumming"....he started the gong thing with the " fair warning ' tour....seen that one also....

Alex Van Halen is one of the ten greatest rock drummers of all-time in my opinion. One of the things I love most about his playing is his use of his cymbals. He wasn't the first to do it, but that beat from Hot For Teacher is so cool because of his ride cymbals.

Alex is about as solid as they get too. Let's face it, have you ever seen him mess up? No. He compliments his brother's playing very well and makes the band sound better overall. When you don't have to worry so much about singing, you can let loose a lot more and it shows with him...Great drummer...great feel...great sound...great, period!!!

Alex Van Halen is one of the ten greatest rock drummers of all-time in my opinion. One of the things I love most about his playing is his use of his cymbals. He wasn't the first to do it, but that beat from Hot For Teacher is so cool because of his ride cymbals.

Alex is about as solid as they get too. Let's face it, have you ever seen him mess up? No. He compliments his brother's playing very well and makes the band sound better overall. When you don't have to worry so much about singing, you can let loose a lot more and it shows with him...Great drummer...great feel...great sound...great, period!!!

Your correct, Alex is definatly good. My third influence. I can listen to his playing all day. His solos on youtube are done to entertain music listeners. Not drummers per say. And most drummers will say He's not Vinnie, Thomas Lang, Donati, Chambers or countless others. Guys that have taken drumming to another level. But Alex does what HE does best. Not what Vinnie or Bozzio or Minneman do best. True his solo's are pretty basic & straight forward. But thats what impresses music LISTENERS. Not every drummer out there. Parraddidles, double strokes and flams arent going to impress Van Halen fans. Maybe drummers but not the average V.H fan. Alex knows what it takes to excite HIS crowd.

He was my fav as a youngling. I've seen them 5 times all throughout their years. Tommy Lee is not in the same class as Alex Van Halen. Its like comparing apples and oranges. I'm not knocking Tommy Lee since he can play a rock beat well. Howevevr, Alex Van Halen was in a class all his own. Unless you really sit down and listen closely, you will miss quite a bit of what he is all about. Listen to how he works his hat. Listen to his doubles as he hits the cymbal ( did you catch these? ). It wasn't immediately obvious to me. There are other subtle tricks he pulled that you don't catch until you listen to the song many times and can isolate it. Just amazing.

He was my fav as a youngling. I've seen them 5 times all throughout their years. Tommy Lee is not in the same class as Alex Van Halen. Its like comparing apples and oranges. I'm not knocking Tommy Lee since he can play a rock beat well. Howevevr, Alex Van Halen was in a class all his own. Unless you really sit down and listen closely, you will miss quite a bit of what he is all about. Listen to how he works his hat. Listen to his doubles as he hits the cymbal ( did you catch these? ). It wasn't immediately obvious to me. There are other subtle tricks he pulled that you don't catch until you listen to the song many times and can isolate it. Just amazing.

Very true about Alex. The magic about Alex, I think, is that he does things that are not always that hard but they are just Alex and you may not have heard any other drummer play it. Whether a fill or a beat Alex plays things that are sometimes out of the ordinary. He plays some hard stuff also. The drum fill before the "Dreams" guitar solo still amazes me. His beginning beat to "Finish what ya Started", not terribly hard, but that song help me tremendously to learn about independence seperating beats w/snare hand and foot. I could go on and on. I stated before about the drummers taking things to Extreme levels, But I have been impressed by Alex many many times over. It doesnt have to be Out of This World to be impressive.

Alex was always fond of the "big" kit, but within' that was always 2 kicks, 2 racks, and almost always 2 floors. 2 crashes, one left, one right. Everything else is just packin' more drums in on top of more drums.

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I got to see VH for free just recently in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, and I'll tell you what, that old man can STILL play some DRUMS!!!

He used that same John Douglas 2007 kit and it really sounded good, no, GREAT! Even with the shortfalls of inferior venue acoustics and hax sound reinforcement. It was reminiscent of Bonham's live tone, you know, that wide open big-assed Ludwig sound. Yeah, it was great!

It was a pretty damn good show all around, even Eddie looked like he was having fun!

I was just listening to F.U.C.K.......................and I forgot how good it actually is. I like Sammy but I prefer Dave over him. But this has to be one of their best, w/Dave or not.
I have said here before that I could say Alex is my third biggest influence behind Neil Peart second and Gregg Bissonette first. Listening to the cd I can hear that I have pulled a lot from Alex in his way of playing just from this cd alone. It may put him in front of Neil. The whole vibe of the Band, Alex's sound, his neuances and just his little displacement of snare and bass are very cool to me. I know there is Colaiuta, Weckl, Lang, Donati, S.Smith, Chambers and so on that are jaw dropping, but to me Alex is one of the best hard rock drummers out that that just throws in that little extra to make things interesting. And he makes it seem fun.

I've enjoyed alex's playing since I first heard them in the early 80's, he is a big influence in my style, I really enjoy the power with which he plays an the sometimes intricate ride cymbal work as well. I once read a drum teachers comment.........."Even if your not a van halen fan, You should be an alex van halen fan".

I've enjoyed alex's playing since I first heard them in the early 80's, he is a big influence in my style, I really enjoy the power with which he plays an the sometimes intricate ride cymbal work as well. I once read a drum teachers comment.........."Even if your not a van halen fan, You should be an alex van halen fan".

Alex Van Halen has an remarkable drumming on VH1, VH2, Women & Children First, Fair Warning, Diverdown, 1984. And The Cradle will rock....!

Cheers,

The good old (Dave) days. But you cant forget what he has done after DLR left. As I stated above F.U.C.K. is some of his best drumming IMO. Alex is of course known best for Hot For Teacher....................................but his drumming, also double bass w/great fills, in Loss of Control is very cool how he hits his snare sometimes on the & instead of always on the straight beat..............................great hi energy song.

Well Im new here so I thought I would bring this thread back from the dead. I grew up in the 80's and Alex was and still is my favorite drummer, Van Halen ll is IMO his best work and after Roth left I thought his drumming went down hill just like the music did. Its a shame cause Alex and Mike Anthony never got or get the credit they deserve cause they were always over shadowed by Eddie and Roth!

Had the privilege of getting to know Al pretty well from '90 to '99 while
I was freelancing as a music journalist. We would get invited out to catch
numerous shows per tour and we had a ball (especially on the BALANCE tour).

I cannot stress enough how professional and down to earth the two
brothers were. And their love of playing is unsurpassed. I was really
impressed with their closeness and their constant desire to create new
music.

The bass drums in the beginning of hot for teacher are amazing.
Alex is good, i just don't like the fact that he uses ride cymbal bells all the time (it sounds like it). Unique style though, I like his work with the bass drum; like in poundcake.

Alex Van Halen's zebra stripe drumset is on display at the guitar center in west los angeles. You can get close and see how the bass drums are linked. It looks like its been played hard too. They wont let you play it though :(

Alex was always fond of the "big" kit, but within' that was always 2 kicks, 2 racks, and almost always 2 floors. 2 crashes, one left, one right. Everything else is just packin' more drums in on top of more drums.

He he he. I was t that show.
SMILE was the other hot local act at that time. Grammer, Gervin and Jim Volpe on drums if I remember correctly. If you remember a band called RINCON from that era Harry, that was me. They used to get all their equipment from Dr. Music on Foothill, next to the SEARS.

The bass drums in the beginning of hot for teacher are amazing.
Alex is good, i just don't like the fact that he uses ride cymbal bells all the time (it sounds like it). Unique style though, I like his work with the bass drum; like in poundcake.

It's the old story of how its done. I think it's toms in the beginning and then the shuffle added. I'm not sure though.
I actually like the way he used his ride bell and how he rides the crash. I think he has been pretty creative w/the bell of his ride. In a few tunes (one on Diver Down;forget the name) he plays the bass drum straight and lets the ride bell do all the talking along w/Eddies guitar. Very cool IMO.
Also w/the bass drum thing, a song that comes to mind is Girl Gone Bad. Its got a Bonham feel to it. A lot of cool fills in there too.

I just listened to Women and Children First, to and from work. Cradle will Rock, Romeos Delight, T.Y.Whiskey Home, Loss of Control and Simple Rhyme are all great tunes. Great album in general, but those are my favorites. Very unique drumming. Not your standard rock drumming. A lot of cool stuff thrown in. Especially Simple Rhyme.

The bass drums in the beginning of hot for teacher are amazing.
Alex is good, i just don't like the fact that he uses ride cymbal bells all the time (it sounds like it). Unique style though, I like his work with the bass drum; like in poundcake.

It's funny. I was never impressed by Van Halen mostly because of Dave's gigolo appearance and sexual innuendos. To me they looked cheap and I never captured the amazing musical abilities.
Now, some 30 years later I discovered "Ain't talkin bout love" and I cannot stop playing this song and I especially like Dave's amazing voice and the ride work on it coupled with the great snare sound. Go figure.

Van Halen 1 has some really great playing by Alex. Over the years he has always had a very distinct sounding snare too. I never thought he was anything special when they first came out, but over the years really listsning to what he is doing I realize he has a lot of talent.

I absolutely love Alex Van Halen's style of play, mostly because lots of times I can't figure out what he's doing! He plays with such power, yet there's always an undercurrent of nuance that you just can't put your finger on (at least that's how it is for me).

And his style and sound are very unique, even for a rock drummer. He plays and sounds very different from his contemporaries. I do think that his cymbal play is somewhat over the top, as in, a little too much, but hey - that's Alex! One of my favorite songs is "Loss of Control", as mentioned by mikeybbdrummin above; a very underrated song in my book.

I had a go a little while back at covering my favorite Van Halen song, "Girl Gone Bad". To me this is Van Halen's most underrated song; underrated because I think it's so good musically, by all the band members.

Bottom line is that he's in my elite list of favorite drummers, and I hope to cover another of his songs soon. Alex Van Halen rocks.

I absolutely love Alex Van Halen's style of play, mostly because lots of times I can't figure out what he's doing! He plays with such power, yet there's always an undercurrent of nuance that you just can't put your finger on (at least that's how it is for me).

And his style and sound are very unique, even for a rock drummer. He plays and sounds very different from his contemporaries. I do think that his cymbal play is somewhat over the top, as in, a little too much, but hey - that's Alex! One of my favorite songs is "Loss of Control", as mentioned by mikeybbdrummin above; a very underrated song in my book.

I had a go a little while back at covering my favorite Van Halen song, "Girl Gone Bad". To me this is Van Halen's most underrated song; underrated because I think it's so good musically, by all the band members.

Bottom line is that he's in my elite list of favorite drummers, and I hope to cover another of his songs soon. Alex Van Halen rocks.

I agree. Funny, I mentioned Girl Gone Bad in my last post too.
Like I have said in defense of Neil Peart..............same goes for Alex....It doesn't matter who is faster, hits harder, or more technical NOW.......................what matters< to me anyways, is what Alex brought to the table in his day. His style is very unique. And nobody will convince me otherwise.........................My favorites/major influences (and I never say the best on the planet) are Gregg Bissonette, Neil Peart and Alex Van Halen....................I incorporate all three in my style of playing, and I thank them all for the great drumming that made me like them in the first place!!

Not a fan of DLR era VH, plus I cant stand Alexs' early "signature" snare sound. Like some of the Sammy stuff, but overall wouldnt call myself a fan. On some of the Sammy stuff he did have some great drum sounds though. No matter who the drummer is, the one thing I absolutely DETEST is when guys ride their crash cymbals. "Humans Being" is my fave VH song, I thought "Wow, finally something heavy from these guys", then he has to ruin it (I think during the solo) riding the crash!

No denying the guy is unique though, just wish he wouldve played in a band I liked more.

YES, thank you! I wouldn't comment on this age old debate, but earlier (years ago) posts here are just plain wrong. Here's a young drummer giving the best lesson I've seen for the HFT intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssNrAODsmIE